Comments on: Why the Shepherding Movement Failed http://www.priestlynation.com/why-the-shepherding-movement-failed/ my journey of recovery from University Bible Fellowship Tue, 29 Mar 2016 16:34:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1 By: briank http://www.priestlynation.com/why-the-shepherding-movement-failed/#comment-2984 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:11:19 +0000 http://www.priestlynation.com/?p=1478#comment-2984 Thanks for sharing, Joshua. In my observation such “counsel” is not that of a Christian pastor. The pastors I’ve encountered since leaving ubf are nearly unanimous in that they intentionally say “Don’t follow me; follow Jesus. Don’t create a weekly checklist of religious accomplishment; learn to listen to God’s voice. Be part of a community, but never neglect your responsibility to your wife and family.”

If I received the advice you did, I would now say “Commitment to a religious organization is one thing, and changing churches is indeed not a light matter. But allegiance to Jesus everything, and my family needs to be in a place suitable and healthy for us.”

I think there are many related Scriptures to this :)

These days I love reading the paraphrase, The Message, especially Galatians:

“11-13 Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!

14-16 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!” (Galatians 6:11-16)

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+6&version=MSG

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By: Joshua http://www.priestlynation.com/why-the-shepherding-movement-failed/#comment-2982 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:45:32 +0000 http://www.priestlynation.com/?p=1478#comment-2982 When I was contemplating whether to move on or to remain in the place where I was, I was counseled like this:

“You must make a life-time commitment to your ministry. Just as you don’t leave your spouse when she has problems and a better-looking one comes along, so you should not leave your church.” (paraphrase)

I responded: “I can find no evidence of that teaching in scripture.”

The conversation didn’t get much further.

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By: briank http://www.priestlynation.com/why-the-shepherding-movement-failed/#comment-2980 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:57:18 +0000 http://www.priestlynation.com/?p=1478#comment-2980 “At a certain point if your leaders do not check the pattern, it becomes a full fledged cult. Normally, however this pattern is held in tension with Biblical expectations so these groups rarely become true cults, while still exhibiting cult-like features.”

The leaders in Toledo, India, China, Russia and a few other places in ubf-world did not “check the pattern” recently… and so those ministries imploded from 2010 to 2011, and many continue to be in denial about the reality of the exodus of long-time leaders that occurred during those years.

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